In simple terms, drought is a lack of water over a given temporal and spatial scale. Drought can be a severe natural disaster with substantial social and economic consequences. Historical and paleoclimatic evidence shows that drought has always impacted the physical environment and will continue to do so. Management actions can either mitigate or exacerbate the effects of drought. As drought regimes change, the ability to quantify and predict the impacts on forests and rangelands is critical to developing and implementing management actions to increase resiliency and adaptation…

This scientific document focus includes

drought characterization;

drought impacts on forest processes and disturbances such as insect outbreaks and wildfire; and